Here's a suggestion for replacing your DX lenses and at the same time have funds left for buying your new FX camera body.

With the entrance of Nikon D3, D700 and Canon 5D, full frame digital cameras has come within the financial reach normal people with a normal income, mortgages, electricity bills, school fees etc. Some will already now complain that 2,500 Euro (approx. 3,400 US$) for an Canon EOS 1D is not within financial reach, and admittedly it is a lot of money, but as we all know cutting edge technology is expensive. History and experience does however tell us that soon (very soon) full frame digital cameras will not be cutting edge and prices will go drastically down. Already now you can, If you look at eBay, find a used Canon EOS 1D mark II for less than 1,500 Euro (approx. 2,000 US$) and a used Nikon D700 for approximately the same amount.

Unfortunately finding the camera body is not enough. If you are one of the unfortunate people that (like me) were lured to purchase Nikons DX lenses that only work on cameras with a DX sensor you may now be the “lucky” owner of a lot of expensive glass that will very soon become obsolete. Nikon has been wise enough to ensure that their DX lenses work on their FX cameras, but this comes at a high price. If you use a DX lens on a D700 your D700 will immediately transmogrify itself into a very expensive 5 megapixel camera because it only uses part of your 1,500 Euro FX sensor. To make a long story short, if you want to go full frame, you need to buy yourself some new “glass”.

Sell Your DX Lenses

My first Digital SLR camera was a D70 purchased back in 2004 and it came with the awesome 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-S DX kit lens. It soon got the company of a 12-24mm f/4 AF-S DX and a 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED and then I had had practically all the lenses I could ever dream of using. For a long time I lived in happy ignorance and thought I had enough lenses to last me a lifetime. Then in August 2007 when Nikon introduced the D3 I was pulled out of my misconception. It became obvious to me that the FX sensor size would be standard within a foreseeable future and that like with the IX lenses that Nikon introduced with their Pronea APS cameras, the DX lenses would soon be worthless. So in order to save some of my investment I put all of my DX lenses on eBay and was lucky enough to have them sold at a reasonable price and thereby avoid the financial hit that a lot of other people are going to experience over the next couple of years.

Buy Used

Next challenge was to find lenses to replace what I’d just sold. Clearly the reason that Nikon introduced the DX lenses was not to cheat people, but merely to be able to supply versatile lenses as reasonable prices to a competitive market. As the DX lenses require smaller pieces of glass they are cheaper to produce. Therefore full frame lenses are more expensive than the DX lenses since they require more and bigger lumps of glass that require more Full frame lenses require more glass and polishingpolishing. I believe that the cost involved in producing a FX sensor camera is only marginally higher than producing a DX sensor camera, but producing lenses suitable for FX cameras is undoubtedly more expensive than producing for DX cameras. In other words, if I were to buy new FX lenses I would have to fork out serious money and it would violate an agreement with my otherwise very tolerant and understanding wife, that my lens exchange exercise should be more or less cost neutral.

After some pondering I found the solution. A number of journalists have been writing articles claiming that you couldn’t use your old SLR lenses with digital SLRs. This is to a large extent untrue and I suspect that for the majority of journalists writing these articles they have either not had a clue about what they were writing about or they have been bribed by the lens manufacturers to write such rubbish. On Nikon cameras you are able to use any AI or AF lens manufactured since 1977. You may not get autofocus on all cameras, but it will fit the mount and work. The only grain of truth there is to the claim that old analog lenses are not usable on digital SLRs is that on some cameras, most notably the Nikon D40, you won’t get auto focus since some of the older lenses does not have auto focus motor internally and therefore relies on the cameras auto focus motor, a feature which is absent in the D40.

These misunderstandings combined with a lot of people with old analog SLR cameras moving to compact digital cameras have led to a situation where the market is flooded with old analog cameras like the Nikon F65, F70, F75 and even F4 and F5’s. The flooding leads to very low a price which is where it becomes interesting. A lot of the old analog cameras are sold with the kit-lenses they were originally sold with of which for the most are pretty crappy and uninteresting, but occasionally you can dig out a golden nugget.

Wide Angle

One example of such a golden nugget is the Nikon 24mm f/2.8 lens AI-s lens. The first versions of this lens dates back to the early 1980’ies, but in terms of mechanical construction it is build like a tank and nothing less than a masterpiece and it is as sharp as you will ever get it. It is an excellent replacement for the 12-24mm DX lens and as I am writing there are four of these for sale on eBay for approx. 125 Euro (170 US$).

Medium Range Zoom

While the 24mm will serve you as an excellent wide angle lens you need something to replace your 18-70mm DX lens. One of the suitable candidates is the Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8D lens. Like the 24mm it is built like a tank and sharp like a razor and the fact that it has a constant aperture of f2.8 across the entire zoom range makes it suitable for available light shooting, a thing that neither the 12-24mm nor the 18-70mm or the 18-200mm lenses are very good at since their aperture starts at f3.5 and f4. Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch and one of the prices that you have to pay here is that the 35-70mm lens is a push/pull zoom which can be quite awkward to get used to when you are used to the newer twist zoom lenses. It is however only a matter of a few hours before you don’t notice it. An additional benefit of the 35-70mm is that it comes with a macro mode that offers manual focus at 35mm and allows you to focus at less than 60 cm (2 ft.). As I am writing I can find used 35-70mm f/2.8 lenses in mint condition on eBay for approx 300 Euro (400 US$). If you go looking on eBay take care that you don’t mistake it for the 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 lens which is inferior in both build and performance.

Long Range Zoom

With the above lineup you now cover wide-angle with the 24mm and normal medium range shooting with the 35-70mm. As both of these are f/2.8 you can even do available light shooting and you even have a decent macro. The only lens you can reasonably wish for now is a good long range zoom. This is where things get a bit tricky because a large aperture zoom requires a awful lot of glass and polishing which again sums up to an obscene amount of money. So unless you have 500 Euro (600 US$) to spend on a used Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 ED you need to compromise on the aperture. One suggestion for such a compromise is the Nikon 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF. This lens comes from the same heritage as the 35-70mm and is nothing less than an engineering masterpiece. It focuses blazingly fast and despite lack of VR (vibration reduction) it is sharp and easy to work with. I own one and occasionally use it for street photography when I don’t want to be right up in the face of the subjects and even for that use, where I rarely have a tripod and often shoot while walking it gives me sharp pictures. Like the 35-70mm it is also a push/pull zoom and also offers an excellent macro mode at 75mm. Unfortunately this is a rare beast and as I am writing there is only one for sale on eBay at around 375 Euro (500 US$). It is however worth waiting for so be patient and look around. Alternatively you can look for the 70-210mm f/3.5-5.6. This is an equally good (although shorter) lens at approx. the same price.

How Does It Add Up?

So how does this all add up? If you want to exchange your 12-24mm and your 18-200mm lenses for full frame lenses. Going rate for the 12-24mm on eBay is approx. 720 Euro (approx. 1,000 US$) and for the 18-200mm the price is approx. 525 Euro (approx. 710 US$) – a total of 1,245 Euro (1,710 US$). The total price for the 24mm, the 35-70mm and the 75-300mm lenses is 800 Euro (1,070 US$). This gives you 445 Euro (640 US$) towards the purchase price of your FX camera body and while you are saving for that you can use the lenses with your DX camera and be better equipped than you were with your DX lenses. If you like me also own a DX kit lens like the 18-70mm you can keep that for your DX camera which you shouldn’t sell since you won’t get a decent price for it. Instead keep it as a spare camera or give it to someone in need of a beginner SLR camera.

 

You may end up having better lenses for less money.Just as the 75-300mm is becoming a rare beast the 35-70mm has gone out of production and is therefore becoming rarer. The same goes for the 24mm. Therefore you shouldn’t set your mind on these lenses and not be willing to compromise. Instead you should investigate what lenses could be viable alternatives to fill your needs and then scour eBay or your favorite market place for these and be ready to act when the right lens comes up at the right price.

 

Investigating alternative lenses can be a tricky and time consuming thing, but alas; “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. There is no alternative to hard work. Use Google to dig up reviews, ask your fellow photographers in your local photo club and use online discussion forums. One excellent source for Nikon lens reviews and information is www.kenrockwell.com. Ken Rockwell has done an excellent job of investigating, trying and reviewing an impressive number of Nikon lenses through the time, and I doubt there is anybody on the planet that knows more about the subject than him, so his reviews are generally trustworthy.

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